Marketers Will Spend $103 Billion On Digital Advertising By 2019

While many companies and brands are still placing billions of dollars worth of ads on traditional television, they’re also more aggressively pursuing digital options. Forrester Research believes U.S. digital advertising spending will beat out TV spending by the year 2019, reaching $103 billion.

According to Adweek, Forrester claims digital spending will see a 12% annual compound growth rate by the year stated above. The research group found mobile is particularly responsible for the estimated massive $103 billion figure, with the platform claiming 66% of the growth in interactive categories in the next five years.

On the other hand, TV ad spending won’t do so so well, says Forrester. The research group estimates the U.S. TV advertising industry will reach $85.8 billion by 2019. However, Adweek noted other companies predict digital ad spending will beat out television ad spending even faster. Magna Global estimates 2017 will be “the” year digital trumps TV while eMarketer claims it’ll happen in 2018.

Regardless of the exact date digital advertising overtakes TV, advertisers’ focus on the new media space has already been set. Last year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau found internet ad revenues had beat out broadcast television revenues for the first time in history, claiming $42.8 billion as opposed to TV’s $40.1 billion.

It’s obvious advertisers have become and are becoming increasingly aware of the fact they should put more of their dollars towards digital media. Forward-looking Omnicom recently suggested this route to its clients (including McDonald’s, Pepsi, and Starbucks), telling them to invest 10-25% of their TV advertising budgets in online video.

For now, research groups will just have to wait and see which can claim bragging rights for calling the exact year digital ad spends would overtake those of TV.